Diwali Foods and Sweets Explained | Taste of India NJ

Diwali, the festival of lights. Families clean and decorate their homes, light oil lamps called diyas, and spend several days visiting relatives and sharing food. Customs differ by region and community, so a Gujarati Diwali table looks different from a Bengali or Tamil one.

Sweets sit at the center of Diwali, and most are made from milk, sugar, ghee and nuts.

• Gulab jamun: fried dumplings of milk solids soaked in sugar syrup, usually flavored with cardamom.
• Jalebi: batter piped into spirals, fried, and soaked in syrup. It is best eaten warm.
• Barfi: a dense, fudge-like sweet made from milk solids or condensed milk, often topped with pistachios.
• Kaju katli: thin diamond-shaped pieces made from cashew paste.
• Ladoo: round sweets. Besan ladoo (chickpea flour) and boondi ladoo are the common types.

Exchanging boxes of sweets with neighbors, coworkers and relatives is a standard part of the holiday.

Samosas (pastry filled with spiced potato and peas) and pakoras (vegetables fried in chickpea-flour batter) are the usual starters. Chakli, a crisp spiral made from rice and lentil flours, and mathri, a flaky fried cracker, keep for days, which is why families make them in batches before the holiday.

Main dishes vary widely. Dal, paneer dishes, vegetable curries, pulao and puri all appear, and some households serve meat while others keep the festival meal vegetarian. A host planning for guests usually wants one rice dish, one or two curries, a bread, a snack and at least one sweet. Choosing one dish from each group works better than ordering several curries that taste alike.

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